The Peninsula
World No.1 Ashleigh Barty made an impressive start to her Qatar Total Open campaign registering a fluent straight sets win, while Sofia Kenin suffered her third defeat since winning the Australian Open earlier this month.
Yesterday at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, the 31-year-old Australian stormed to a 6-3, 6-2 win over German qualifier Laura Siegemund in one hour and 13 minutes to make it to the third round.
Making her Doha debut, Barty meant business turning up a smart, controlled performance, tallying 19 winners and 16 unforced errors, to overcome Siegemund, which was the first meeting between the two. Up next for the reigning French Open champion will be either a rematch of her Australian Open third round against Elena Rybakina, who has since reached back-to-back finals in St. Petersburg and Dubai.
Earlier, American world number five Kenin, who defeated Garbine Muguruza to claim her maiden Grand Slam singles title in Melbourne, went down 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to tUkrainian youngster Dayana Yastremska continuing her poor run since winning the Grand Slam Down Under. Kenin lost one of her two matches in the United States' Fed Cup qualifying win over Latvia, before being knocked out by in-form Kazakh Elena Rybakina in the Dubai opening round last week.
"It's really frustrating," the 21-year-old said.
"Obviously coming off of Melbourne where I felt I was playing the best tennis of my life, coming down to playing, not the worst tennis, but not playing the tennis I want to be playing."
The 19-year-old Yastremska will face either Muguruza or Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round.
Also advancing to the third round was 2018 champion Petra Kvitova, who came from a set down to capture her first Middle East win over 2016 winner Carla Suárez Navarro.
The two-time Wimbledon champion won 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 in one hour and 43 minutes.
Meanwhile, defending champion Elise Mertens lost to Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, while Elena Rybakina won a 21st match of 2020 against Alison Van Uytvanck 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(8) while Belinda Bencic staved off a tough challenge from rising Russian Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4), both in third-set tie-breaks.